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There is now the option to utilize a keyword search that looks through all the documents and maps in the Earchives. It has been a consistent request that I hope people will find useful. Every document added is processed to be fully OCR. Now you can look for any specific attractions, shows, shops and more!

Just click the “Search” option from the menu bar and enter the search terms!

I’ve been working in the background as time permitted to set up a new way to view the maps. Now, it’s finally live on the site!

When you do a map search now, the results page LOOKS the same. But when you click on the map you are taken to a map details page instead. I will be able to have a lot more data displayed about the map including the contributor. You will still be able to download the PDF from that page, just like before.

But the biggest change is that now you can look at the map pages directly from the site, and without watermarks no less! I know that the watermarks in the PDF files have bothered some, and I do apologize for that. The watermarks were an unfortunate result of someone taking the files and then selling them. These files are always intended to be freely available to everyone.

If you want to see the ultimate results of what I’d like to do, just look at the very first map from Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom, from 1972.

Lastly, I am still in the laborious process of converting and uploading the images for each map. If you pick a map that has no pictures yet, it will just be blank on that part of the page. The rest of the details should be there just fine!

7 new Magic Kingdom maps added today, all from the late 90’s. Wow, there were a lot of those! Some of those maps were only good for 4-7 days, since they updated many of the performance times, etc within the map itself, rather than having a separate times schedule. You have to wonder how much money that cost to change the printing so often!

I have also been working on some back-end stuff that should make browsing the maps more interesting. When it’s closer to being ready to reveal, I will talk more about the new features!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently…I had a major project at my day job which finally just wrapped up recently. Since that’s what pays the bills, it gets priority! Thanks for your patience!

I uploaded a bunch of Disneyland maps from 1970, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1990 and 1991. I also have a guide pamphlet from 1958 that’s really cool in there now! And just for good measure, the May 2013 map as well.

At last, the final (for now) Disney theme park: Hong Kong Disneyland! There are 16 maps total, including the Grand Opening map. There are also both English and Chinese versions of some maps, in case you’re interested.

So what next? I could go back through and start scanning maps I’ve collected since I started the scanning, to fill holes in the collection. I also have lots of other materials/periodicals to add. And last, but certainly, something MUCH bigger that I don’t think I’m quite ready to put out in the open just yet…

Today we jump to exotic international locations for Disney Park maps. I have added sections for Eurodisney/Disneyland Paris as well as Tokyo Disneyland Resort. Both sections have only a few maps each, since these tend to be much harder to come across. If anyone reading this visits these parks, I would love to have someone willing to send new maps as they come out, or even older maps if they turn up. As always, I will cover postage and handling, and you will receive credit for the contribution!

Next will be Hong Kong Disneyland. I have a decent number of those maps, more than these two resorts combined.

Announcing the rope drop for the newest section of the Earchives, Disney’s California Adventure! I have scanned and uploaded every California Adventure map that I currently possess, which marks another milestone: a park that I don’t have to revisit immediately. Every other park has accumulated additional maps in the time it took to scan that collection. Of course, it has not even been 24 hours since I finished the processing for California Adventure, so maybe that’s not saying too much…

Some parks will need a very large update. For example, MGM/Hollywood Studios has a stack that is probably 4 inches high. But first I want to scan my maps of overseas parks. Those will not take a very long time, and could probably be done in one installment like California Adventure.

I really want to get through these maps, though, because I have SO much other source material I would like to share. Things like historical Eyes & Ears issues going back to the 1970’s (that’s the cast member newsletter for Walt Disney World if you aren’t aware). Ride operations manuals. Vacation planning guides. There are so many wonderful vintage photographs, illustrations and articles that I want you all to see!

Stay tuned, and keep checking back! Also, if you have anything you’d like to contribute I would be so grateful. Just contact me if you do!

P.S. In case you’re keeping track, the collection is currently at about 382 maps online for you to browse!

I was able to get all the 2010 through 2013 maps for Disneyland scanned and uploaded for your enjoyment today. Even through it is only 4 years worth, there were quite a few maps during that period so it took a bit of time.

I will be heading to California Adventure next. Even though the park is only a bit over a decade old, there are a number of maps to scan for that park.

Even though I “finished” Disneyland, I have recently acquired a number of older maps and guides from its history including the 50’s, 70’s and 80’s. I’m really excited to make those available to everyone, but I really want to get all the parks represented first. After California Adventure I am going to get all my international Disney Parks maps scanned. I don’t have a lot of those yet, so that shouldn’t create too much of a delay before going back to fill in maps for the parks I already started on this site.

Thanks again for looking! I welcome any feedback, either through comments or email. I look forward to hearing from you!

So while doing more scanning, editing and PDF creation, I was messing around within Photoshop and experimenting with different options and automation. Suddenly I discovered that Photoshop has an automatic cropping and straightening function that works fairly well with scanned images! When it’s working well, it has taken my processing time down to probably 25% of what it used to take. Sometimes it has trouble “reading” the image and I have to do it manually, but anything to cut down the time is welcome!

So I was able to power through most of my remaining Disneyland maps over the past week, from 1980 up through 2009. I just have the past few years to do. The big problem I’m facing is that the maps stopped using publication numbers that encode the date, so trying to put them in the correct order often means trying to use clues within the maps to sort the publication order. If anyone notices errors in the process please let me know, especially if you have some kind of documentation to back it up.

I also picked up a few older Disneyland guidemaps over the past week, so those will be scanned when the come in the mail.